This is our unabridged interview with David Blight.

 “If you’re not ready on some level for the tragedies of history, they’re coming to get you.”

 In September of 2020 Professor David Blight got an unexpected call from his boss. The President of Yale wanted Blight to work on a project about Yale’s historical involvement with slavery. The undertaking was so enormous that the Pulitzer Prize winning historian remembers sitting on the phone “wishing that conversation wasn't happening.” But 4 years later the book was published. Yale and Slavery: A History has been lauded as “the most mature examination ever made of the role of slavery in a university’s past.”

 Lee sits down with David to discuss why how we remember the past matters. “This idea that we don't want history to be divisive or to make people feel unpleasant or unhappy…is of course to manufacture tales that just don't hold up. Which is another way of saying it's like spreading lies in the service of nationalism.”

 Show Notes

 Resources:

 “Yale and Slavery: A History”

 "Fredrick Douglass: Profit of Freedom"

 The Yale Slavery and Research Project

 Similar Episodes:

 Mpho Tutu van Furth

 Eugene Cho and Karen Korematsu

 Dr Eddie Glaude

 Transcript

 Want more NSE? JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community comes with bonus content, ad-free listening, and early access to tickets for our live shows.

 Great Feeling Studios, the team behind No Small Endeavor and other award-winning podcasts, helps nonprofits and brands tell stories that inspire action. Start your podcast at helpmemakeapodcast.com.

 Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
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Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

 See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

 Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

“If you’re not ready on some level for the tragedies of history, they’re coming to get you.”

 In September of 2020 Professor David Blight got an unexpected call from his boss. The President of Yale wanted Blight to work on a project about Yale’s historical involvement with slavery. The undertaking was so enormous that the Pulitzer Prize winning historian remembers sitting on the phone “wishing that conversation wasn't happening.” But 4 years later the book was published. Yale and Slavery: A History has been lauded as “the most mature examination ever made of the role of slavery in a university’s past.”

 Lee sits down with David to discuss why how we remember the past matters. “This idea that we don't want history to be divisive or to make people feel unpleasant or unhappy…is of course to manufacture tales that just don't hold up. Which is another way of saying it's like spreading lies in the service of nationalism.”

 Show Notes

 Resources:

 “Yale and Slavery: A History”

 "Fredrick Douglass: Profit of Freedom"

 The Yale Slavery and Research Project

 Similar Episodes:

 Mpho Tutu van Furth

 Eugene Cho and Karen Korematsu

 Dr Eddie Glaude

 Transcript

 Want more NSE? JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community comes with bonus content, ad-free listening, and early access to tickets for our live shows.

 Great Feeling Studios, the team behind No Small Endeavor and other award-winning podcasts, helps nonprofits and brands tell stories that inspire action. Start your podcast at helpmemakeapodcast.com.

 Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

 See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

 Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

This is our unabridged interview with Juliet Schor.

Are we working too much?

 “Time is a vital resource for us to connect with each other, to connect with the earth and …to come together in solidarity, to try and fix what's wrong.”

 We have accepted the 5 day work week as the status quo—caught in a cycle of working more so we can spend more, just to keep up with the Jones’. But what if there's a better way to live: For our own happiness, the economy, and our planet? 

 Economist and Sociologist Juliet Schor, has spent decades researching the way we work, and her new book - The Four Day Week - invites all of us to imagine a future where work is restructured to serve human needs, not the other way around.

 Show Notes

 Resources:

 “Four Days A Week” by Juliet Schor

 “The Overworked American” by Juliet Schor

 Similar Episodes:

 Oliver Burkeman

 Ben Cohen

 Jay Jakub

 Transcript

 Want more NSE? JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community comes with bonus content, ad-free listening, and early access to tickets for our live shows.

 Great Feeling Studios, the team behind No Small Endeavor and other award-winning podcasts, helps nonprofits and brands tell stories that inspire action. Start your podcast at helpmemakeapodcast.com.

 Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

 See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

 Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Are we working too much?

 “Time is a vital resource for us to connect with each other, to connect with the earth and …to come together in solidarity, to try and fix what's wrong.”

 We have accepted the 5 day work week as the status quo—caught in a cycle of working more so we can spend more, just to keep up with the Jones’. But what if there's a better way to live: For our own happiness, the economy, and our planet? 

 Economist and Sociologist Juliet Schor, has spent decades researching the way we work, and her new book - The Four Day Week - invites all of us to imagine a future where work is restructured to serve human needs, not the other way around.

 Show Notes

 Resources:

 “Four Days A Week” by Juliet Schor

 “The Overworked American” by Juliet Schor

 Similar Episodes:

 Oliver Burkeman

 Ben Cohen

 Jay Jakub

 Transcript

 Want more NSE? JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community comes with bonus content, ad-free listening, and early access to tickets for our live shows.

 Great Feeling Studios, the team behind No Small Endeavor and other award-winning podcasts, helps nonprofits and brands tell stories that inspire action. Start your podcast at helpmemakeapodcast.com.

 Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

 See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

 Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

This is our unabridged interview with Jemar Tisby.

 “The work of justice is daunting…It requires courage.”

 Have you found yourself asking the question “what can I do in the face of so much injustice?” Historian and New York Times bestselling author Jemar Tisby may have some answers for you. From his own experience as one of the only Black worshipers at the “color-blind” Evangelical services of his youth, to his political awakening in the wake of Michael Brown’s murder in Ferguson, Missouri. Tisby explores the history of social justice in the Christian faith tradition, and asks why the white church has so often relinquished its role in the Civil Rights movement? Lee and Jemar discuss his book The Spirit of Justice, and his new video series, Roadmap to Ruin: How the Church Can Resist the Dismantling of Democracy.

​​ ”I believe hope is, is, is not so much a feeling, but action. And when we take steps that lead to human flourishing, we are in fact demonstrating hope.”

 Show Notes

 Resources:

 "The Spirit of Justice" by Jemar Tisby

 "The Color of Compromise" by Jemar Tisby

 Roadmap to Ruin

 Similar Episodes:

 Jerry Mitchell: Murder, Race, and Faith

 When Justice Never Comes How Can We Begin Again?

 Doing Justice Alongside MLK and Rosa Parks

 Transcript

 Want more NSE? JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community comes with bonus content, ad-free listening, and early access to tickets for our live shows.

 Great Feeling Studios, the team behind No Small Endeavor and other award-winning podcasts, helps nonprofits and brands tell stories that inspire action. Start your podcast at helpmemakeapodcast.com.

 Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

 See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

 Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

“The work of justice is daunting…It requires courage.”

 Have you found yourself asking the question “what can I do in the face of so much injustice?” Historian and New York Times bestselling author Jemar Tisby may have some answers for you. From his own experience as one of the only Black worshipers at the “color-blind” Evangelical services of his youth, to his political awakening in the wake of Michael Brown’s murder in Ferguson, Missouri. Tisby explores the history of social justice in the Christian faith tradition, and asks why the white church has so often relinquished its role in the Civil Rights movement? Lee and Jemar discuss his book The Spirit of Justice, and his new video series, Roadmap to Ruin: How the Church Can Resist the Dismantling of Democracy.

​​ ”I believe hope is, is, is not so much a feeling, but action. And when we take steps that lead to human flourishing, we are in fact demonstrating hope.”

 Show Notes

 Resources:

 "The Spirit of Justice" by Jemar Tisby

 "The Color of Compromise" by Jemar Tisby

 Roadmap to Ruin

 Similar Episodes:

 Jerry Mitchell: Murder, Race, and Faith

 When Justice Never Comes How Can We Begin Again?

 Doing Justice Alongside MLK and Rosa Parks

 Transcript

 Want more NSE? JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community comes with bonus content, ad-free listening, and early access to tickets for our live shows.

 Great Feeling Studios, the team behind No Small Endeavor and other award-winning podcasts, helps nonprofits and brands tell stories that inspire action. Start your podcast at helpmemakeapodcast.com.

 Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

 See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

 Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

This is our unabridged interview with Amy Grant.

Five weeks before her 16th birthday in 1976, Amy Grant was offered her first record deal. Now, after tens of millions of record sales, six Grammy awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a receipt of Kennedy Center Honors, she is widely recognized as the “Queen of Christian Pop.”

 From the outside, one might assume that Amy must be a character with a personality larger than life. But in this exclusive interview, Amy opens up about her career as a singer, her family life, and her faith, all against the backdrop of a troubling past few years which have included recovering from open-heart surgery and a severe bike accident.

 Through it all, she showcases what truly makes her an anomaly. In spite of her fame, she remains undoubtedly grounded to a life of quiet, peaceful fulfillment.

 Show Notes

 Resources:

 Amy Grant's Website

 Similar Episodes:

 “Does This Make My Butt Look Big?”: Ashley Cleveland

 Fighting Dragons and Singing at Loss: Drew Holcomb

 Actor and Activist: Martin Sheen

 Transcript

 Want more NSE? JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community comes with bonus content, ad-free listening, and early access to tickets for our live shows.

 Great Feeling Studios, the team behind No Small Endeavor and other award-winning podcasts, helps nonprofits and brands tell stories that inspire action. Start your podcast at helpmemakeapodcast.com.

 Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

 See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

 Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Renowned theologian Walter Brueggemann passed away in June 2025 at the age of 92. In this special retrospective episode of No Small Endeavor, we celebrate his remarkable life and legacy. Drawing from memorable conversations and insightful lectures, we revisit Brueggemann’s piercing critique of what he called the "totalism of market ideology"—the pervasive cultural force shaping American thought and suppressing dissenting voices. With characteristic wisdom, clarity, and wit, Brueggemann challenges us to reject narratives of scarcity, fear, and commodification, inviting us instead into the hopeful vision he famously described as the "prophetic imagination." Listen as he shares personal stories, intellectual turning points, and profound reflections on the power and urgency of truth-telling, both in pulpits and pews.

 Show Notes

 Resources:

 "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann

 "My Bright Abyss" by Christian Wiman

 “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism” by Robert Jay Lifton

 Walter Brueggemann on the NSE YouTube Channel

 Similar Episodes:

 Stanley Hauerwas: “America’s Best Theologian”

 John Dear

 Stanley Hawerwas

 Transcript

 You can get the unabridged version for this episode in NSE+. Click here to join NSE+ if you're not already a member. 

 Great Feeling Studios, the team behind No Small Endeavor and other award-winning podcasts, helps nonprofits and brands tell stories that inspire action. Start your podcast at helpmemakeapodcast.com.

 Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

 See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

 Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising… Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Five weeks before her 16th birthday in 1976, Amy Grant was offered her first record deal. Now, after tens of millions of record sales, six Grammy awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a receipt of Kennedy Center Honors, she is widely recognized as the “Queen of Christian Pop.”

 From the outside, one might assume that Amy must be a character with a personality larger than life. But in this exclusive interview, Amy opens up about her career as a singer, her family life, and her faith, all against the backdrop of a troubling past few years which have included recovering from open-heart surgery and a severe bike accident.

 Through it all, she showcases what truly makes her an anomaly. In spite of her fame, she remains undoubtedly grounded to a life of quiet, peaceful fulfillment.

 Show Notes

 Resources:

 Amy Grant's Website

 Similar Episodes:

 Truth-telling, Anger, and Race: Vince Gill

 “Does This Make My Butt Look Big?”: Ashley Cleveland

 Fighting Dragons and Singing at Loss: Drew Holcomb

 Actor and Activist: Martin Sheen

 Transcript

 Want more NSE? JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community comes with bonus content, ad-free listening, and early access to tickets for our live shows.

 Great Feeling Studios, the team behind No Small Endeavor and other award-winning podcasts, helps nonprofits and brands tell stories that inspire action. Start your podcast at helpmemakeapodcast.com.

 Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

 See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

 Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

This is our unabridged interview with Charles Marsh.

 Has religion ever kept you from doing something that was actually good for you?

 It did for Charles Marsh. As a boy growing up in the evangelical South, Charles was taught to distrust his own body, to fear his desires, and to treat suffering as a gift from God. So when debilitating panic attacks shattered his world as a young man, he thought that he should count these panic attacks as something he was supposed to feel “joy” about.

 Charles is now the Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Find out how he navigated shedding the taboos of his evangelical upbringing as he sits down with Lee to discuss his memoir, Evangelical Anxiety.

 Show Notes

 Resources:

 "Evangelical Anxiety: A Memoir" by Charles Marsh

 "God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights" by Charles Marsh

 Similar Episodes:

 What Hath Christianity to do with Psychology? Mark McMinn

 Is Conservative Christianity Anti-Intellectual?: Molly Worthen

 Mike Cosper: A Critique of American Christianity

 Transcript

 Want more NSE? JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community comes with bonus content, ad-free listening, and early access to tickets for our live shows.

 Great Feeling Studios, the team behind No Small Endeavor and other award-winning podcasts, helps nonprofits and brands tell stories that inspire action. Start your podcast at helpmemakeapodcast.com.

 Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

 See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

 Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Has religion ever kept you from doing something that was actually good for you?

 It did for Charles Marsh. As a boy growing up in the evangelical South, Charles was taught to distrust his own body, to fear his desires, and to treat suffering as a gift from God. So when debilitating panic attacks shattered his world as a young man, he thought that he should count these panic attacks as something he was supposed to feel “joy” about.

 Charles is now the Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Find out how he navigated shedding the taboos of his evangelical upbringing as he sits down with Lee to discuss his memoir, Evangelical Anxiety.

 Show Notes

 Resources:

 "Evangelical Anxiety: A Memoir" by Charles Marsh

 "God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights" by Charles Marsh

 Similar Episodes:

 What Hath Christianity to do with Psychology? Mark McMinn

 Is Conservative Christianity Anti-Intellectual?: Molly Worthen

 Mike Cosper: A Critique of American Christianity

 Transcript

 Want more NSE? JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community comes with bonus content, ad-free listening, and early access to tickets for our live shows.

 Great Feeling Studios, the team behind No Small Endeavor and other award-winning podcasts, helps nonprofits and brands tell stories that inspire action. Start your podcast at helpmemakeapodcast.com.

 Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

 See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

 Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.